PembinaValley

A Manitoba court is being asked to declare Lake Winnipeg a person with Constitutional rights to life, liberty and security of person.

The contention is contained in a lawsuit filed by the province's Southern Chiefs Organization, which hopes to use the lawsuit to force the government to hold public hearings on Manitoba Hydro's licence renewal to continue regulating the lake's waters for power generation. 

The lawsuit says Lake Winnipeg, one of the world's largest, has a spirit, is alive and is suffering. 

The R.M. of Stanley says it will take several weeks to repair all of the damaged roads in the municipality, caused by this week's overland flooding. 

In an update sent to PembinaValleyOnline Thursday afternoon, the Municipality said public works crews have started repairs to the more heavily and critically damaged areas. However, due to the extent of damage, officials say it will take weeks to get the work done, pending good weather. 

Winkler Fire Department had the opportunity to test out its water rescue training Wednesday morning at a call inside the city.

The call came in at 10am, and Chief Richard Paetzold says crews found a vehicle stranded in floodwaters that had overtopped a portion of South Railway Avenue. The driver was unable to exit and wade through the water.

Firefighters deployed a water rescue device to float the driver to higher ground.

There were no injuries in the incident.

The past few years have plagued the St. Jean ATV derby with rain and poor weather but for the 2024 derby, it is looking dry, warm and the organizers could not be more excited!

Held every year on the third weekend in September, the population of St. Jean can double and sometimes triple with the number of machines, people and campers that roll into town for Canada's Largest ATV/UTV Derby.

In addition to all the muddy fun, the group Almost Famous will be performing Friday night and Ricky Smits take the stage on Saturday.

The defence for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers has taken a hit.

The Blue and Gold are going to be without linebacker Adam Bighill for the remainder of the season due to season-ending knee surgery. 

Bighill shared the news on Instagram saying, "Unfortunately today I’m going in for surgery on my knee that will end my season."

Game one is Friday night. Head coach Matt Melo will join Clayton Dreger on the Flyers Report which airs Thursdays at 5:15 p.m. on CFAM Radio 950.

Golf Manitoba's final event of the 2024 season takes place today at the Grand Pines Golf Club. 32 teams including Kevin Wall & Terry Enns and Dwayne Funk & Austin Wiebe of the Winkler Centennial Golf Club have registered for the Men's Four-Ball Championship. 

Additional rainfall received Wednesday morning has only inflated already significant totals received across the region this week.

"The brief, but intense, downpour brought another significant dump in places that already had anywhere between 100 and 150mm earlier this week," explained CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. "The Winkler and Morden area, south into the R.M. of Stanley, based on our Rainwatcher reports, again appears to have received the highest totals."

A 14-year-old boy was handed nearly $850 in fines after he and a buddy went for a ride on their dirt bikes.
    
According to Winkler police, officers were heading north on Highway 32 when they spotted the dirt bikes going at a 'high rate of speed' in the west ditch. As the riders approached the intersection at Southview Drive, police say they accelerated and ramped the intersection and kept heading north in the ditch. That's when officers tried to pull them over - one driver stopped but the other fled.
    

The heavy rainfall this week has again brought to the forefront Rhineland Municipality's desire to complete a comprehensive drainage plan. Don Wiebe made the comment for today's Reeve on the Radio.

He noted one of the first steps was becoming a member of the Pembina Valley Watershed District, which has been done.